NONLINEAR MAGNETIC COUPLING OF A PIEZOELECTRIC ENERGY

HARVESTING CANTILEVER COMBINED WITH VELOCITY-CONTROLLED

SYNCHRONIZED SWITCHING TECHNIQUE

Yu-Yin Chen
1, 2
, Dejan Vasic
1
, Franois Costa
1, 3
, Chih-Kung Lee
2, 4, 5
, Wen-Jong Wu
4*
1
Systme et Application des Technologies de lInformation et de lEnergie, UNIVERSud, Ecole Normale
Suprieure de Cachan, France
2
Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
3
IUFM de Crteil, Universit Paris 12, Place du 8 mai 1945, 93000 St Denis, France
4
Department of Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
5
Institute for Information Industry, Taipei, Taiwan
*Wen-Jong Wu: wjwu@ntu.edu.tw

Abstract: This study reports the nonlinear magnetic coupling technique combined with the velocity-controlled
synchronized switching technique to improve the output power of a piezoelectric energy harvesting cantilever beam.
This is a new and interesting thinking to combine two nonlinear techniques. The magnetic coupling makes a
nonlinear behavior of the cantilever and this behavior can broaden the available band-width. The nonlinear system
combined with parallel SSHI can improve the output power at each frequency and from the simulation result; the
synchronized switch technique will not influence the magnetic nonlinear effect. When these two nonlinear
techniques are combined together, the advantage will also be combined. The theoretical analysis, equivalent circuit
model and preliminary experimental results will be presented.

Keywords: energy harvesting. Magnetic coupling, synchronized switching technique

INTRODUCTION
Scavenging ambient vibration energy with
piezoelectric transducers is highly investigated by
researchers in past few years. Besides the transducer
optimization and design, the interfacing circuit to
piezoelectric transducer which can highly improve the
output power was also vastly studied [1]. The
piezoelectric energy harvesting device has been
proposed as a possible alternative energy source to
supply energy to some low power consumption
electronic devices. The most important application is
to combine energy harvesting device with batteries to
extend the life time and in a wireless sensor network
node to transfer more data over a longer duration [2-4].
It has been known that when the mechanical system is
excited at the resonant frequency there will be the
largest strain and vibration displacement. and there
will be the maximum output power than at non-
resonant frequency . In fact, in the real applications,
the exciting frequency of ambient vibration source is
random and varied within some frequency range [3]. It
is impossible to excite and design the energy harvester
at only the resonant frequency and keep the system
operating always on the maximum point. In the
mechanical system, the quality factor is commonly
very high and this causes the harvester only has high
harvesting power output at single resonant frequency.
In order to improve the power efficiency at the non-
resonant frequency, a new design in mechanical
system to work in wide frequency range is necessary.
Its a new design concept to use magnetic force to
control the piezoelectric energy harvesting system. In
the paper [5], the resonant frequency (26 Hz) of a
piezoelectric cantilever beam is successfully tuned by
transverse magnetic force from 22-32 Hz and enables a
continuous output power of 240- 280 W. By applying
an axial force, the resonant frequency of a
piezoelectric cantilever beam is also successfully tuned
[6, 7]. But all above methods are active techniques to
tune the resonant frequency of the structure and the
mechanical system is still operated within the linear
regime. However, the active tuning actuator will never
increase the net power output [8]. The power
consumed by active tuning is always higher than the
harvesting power. The magnetic coupling of a
piezoelectric cantilever beam is proposed to enhance
harvesting efficiency in [9]. By using fixed magnets,
this passive technique makes mechanical system
operated within nonlinear regime without any external
power to drive the system.
In the other hand, the interfacing circuit using non-
linear technique called SSHI (synchronized switching
harvesting on inductor) is very successful to boost the
output power from piezoelectric energy harvester [10-
15]. This approach is derived from a semi-passive
technique, synchronized switch damping on inductor
(SSDI) [16] technique. Comparing to the standard DC
approach, the SSHI can increase around 400% power
output from piezoelectric energy harvester in a specific
design.
In this study, the nonlinear magnetic coupling
technique combined with the velocity-controlled
synchronized switching technique is presented to
improve the output power of a piezoelectric energy
harvesting cantilever beam. Fig 1 shows the schematic
structure diagram of this newly designed device. The
magnetic coupling makes the behavior of the

cantilever beam works within nonlinear regime. The
nonlinear magnetic coupling technique is composed of
two magnets. One is mounted on the tip of the beam
and the other one is fixed on a stage. Because the two
magnets repulse to each other, the system will be a bi-
stable system and there will be two possible stable
positions shown as Fig 1. When the distance between
these two magnets is designed properly, the nonlinear
behavior can broaden the available band-width.
Piezoelectric patches are designed to be separated into
two parts. One is connected to synchronized switching
technique circuit and this circuit design can boost the
power output of piezoelectric patch to boost power
output in broader frequency range. In order to archive
synchronized switching at the proper time, the other
piezoelectric patch is connected to velocity control
circuit. The theoretical analysis, equivalent circuit
model, simulation and experimental results will be
presented. The simulation and experimental results
will show when piezoelectric energy harvesting
cantilever beam combined with these two nonlinear
techniques (magnetic coupling + SSHI), the available
band width can be broadened and the power output of
each frequency can be effectively improved.


Fig 1: The schematic circuit diagram of magnetic coupling
of a piezoelectric cantilever combined with the synchronized
switching technique

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
The model of the nonlinear magnetic coupling
energy harvesting device is composed of two parts.
One is for the piezoelectric-element and the other one
is for the magnetic force. Fig 2 shows the schematic
diagram of nonlinear magnetic coupling of the
piezoelectric energy harvesting cantilever beam. The
dimensions and axes are also shown in Fig 2. The
piezoelectric layer bounded on the steel cantilever
beam can be regarded as an energy harvesting device.
The analysis of piezoelectric-element part is the same
as the classic model analysis [12]. Considering
piezoelectric cantilever beam vibrating at the first
mode, the piezoelectric patches can be modeled as a
simple one dimension model. The governing equations
of the piezoelectric can be expressed as the following
(1).


Fig. 2: Schematic of nonlinear magnetic couping of
piezoelectric harvesting cantilever beam

0
E
p
F K x V
I x C V

= +

(1)

Where

11 31 0 33
, ,
E E S
p
w t w l
K c e w C
l t


= = = (2)

E
P
K is short circuit stiffness,
11
E
c is elastic constant in
1 direction, is force-voltage coupling factor,
31
e is
piezoelectric constant,
0
C is clamped capacitance of
piezoelectric and
33
S
is permittivity constant.
The magnetic force F
M
can be simplified to one
dimensional model and it is acting only in 3 direction
[9]. By using the curve fitting method, the magnetic
force F
M
can be express as equation (3).

4
( , )
M
ax
F x
bx cx
=
+
(3)

x is the distance between two magnets, a b and c
are the fitting parameters. Fig 3 shows the spring force
of the beam, the vertical magnetic force and potential
energy. There are two minima points in the potential
energy curve, and this means that there are two
possible stable positions of the system. When the
structure vibrates at non-resonant frequency, if the
potential energy is enough to drive the structure from
one stable position to another stable position, the
deflection of the structure will be larger than linear
system case and piezoelectric energy harvester can
output more energy. By combining the piezoelectric-
element model and the magnetic model, the schematic
of nonlinear magnetic coupling of piezoelectric
harvesting cantilever beam in Fig. 2 can be modeled as
equivalent mechanical model by mass, damper, spring,
piezoelectric system and magnetic force shown as Fig
4. The governing equations can be expressed as
equation (4) shown.

Piezoelectric Patches
Exciting source : Vibration shaker
Fixed
End
Free End
Steel Beam
Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting device + Synchronized
switching circuit & Velocity control part
Magnet coupling Nonlinear part
Magnet
mounted on
the tip
Magnet
mounted on
fixed stage
Synchronized switching
technique circuit
Stable position 1
Stable position 2
Velocity Control
Fixed
End
Free
End
Piezoelectric Patches
3
2
F
1
t
w
l
x
F
M
F
M
: length
: width
: thickness
and are larger than
l
w
t
l w t
1
x

-0.0002 -0.0001 0 0.0001 0.0002
Displacement (m)
-5E-007
0
5E-007
1E-006
1.5E-006
2E-006
P
o
t
e
n
t
i
a
l
(
J
)
Potential Energy
No Magnet
-0.04
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
F
o
r
c
e
(
N
)
Magnetic Force
Spring Force

Fig 3: Force and Potential curve.


Fig. 4: Equivalent mechanical model of nonlinear
magnetic coupling of the piezoelectric-element and the
structure..

4
0
E
E M
M
mx Dx K x F F V
ax
F
bx cx
I x C V

+ + = +

(4)

D is the damping ratio of the structure; K
E
is the
equivalent stiffness of the structure and piezoelectric
materials. According to the equation (4), the equivalent
circuit model can be represented as Fig 5. The
mechanical part and electrical part are the classical
equivalent circuit models of piezoelectric-element. The
magnetic force is taken into account by adding a
nonlinear magnetic feedback loop.


Fig. 5: Equivalent circuit model of nonlinear magnetic
coupling of piezoelectric-element and the structure.

SSHI-P (Synchronized Switch Harvesting on
Inductor Parallel)
In order to improve the power output of piezo-
element at each frequency, synchronized switch
harvesting on inductor is used here. The analysis and
model are the same as classic ones [12]. By using an
inductor in parallel with the piezoelectric-element to
resonate with the static capacitor and through the
switches to confine the current flow, the output power
can be improved. The schematic diagram of the SSHI-
parallel configuration is shown in Fig 6 and the
waveforms are shown in Fig 7.


Figure 6: Schematic diagram of the SSHI-parallel
piezoelectric energy harvesting device with full bridge
rectifier before a resistor load


Figure 7: Waveform of the SSHI-parallel piezoelectric
energy harvesting device.

Considering the time period from T
1
to T
4
(half
cycle), the current flow I
R
from T
1
to T
4
equals to the
resonance current I
L
from T
1
to T
2
plus the
piezoelectric current I
P
from T
1
to T
4
. Integrating the
current from T
1
to T
4
, V
C
can be obtained as shown in
equation (5). The power output from the piezoelectric-
element can be simply obtained by using P = V
2
/R as
shown in equation (6).

2
0 0

1
I
E
C
Q
F R
V
D
e C R

=
| |
+ |
|
\
(5)

2 2 2
2 2
2
0 0

4
1
I
C E
Q
V F R
P
R D
e C R

= =
( | |
+ ( |
|
(
\
(6)

Velocity Control
One small piezoelectric patch is designed for
generating the velocity control signal and making
SSHI-P technique switching at the proper time. The
equivalent circuit and the waveform are shown in Fig 8.
Mass
Damper Spring
Piezoelectric
x
F
E
F
D F
S
F
P
V
I
: External driving force on the structure
: Magnetic force on structure
: Damping force from damper
: Spring force from structure stiffness
: Force form piezoelectric structure
: Displacemen
E
M
D
S
P
F
F
F
F
F
x t
: Voltage arcoss the piezoelectric patch
: Current flow out from piezoelectric patch
V
I
F
M
:1
x
E
F
m
L
m
C
m
R
0
C
I
V
Mechanical part Electrical part
M
1
E
K
D

4
ax
bx cx +
+
+
x x
M
F
Nonlinear Magnetic feedback loop
Piezoelectric patch
Full Bridge
V
P
R
I
R
Load : Resistor
V
c
r
C
L
I
P
I
L
T
I
C
I

C
V

C
V
x
x
1
T
3
T
4
T
1
T
2
1
2
LC
T T =
2
I Q
C
V e

2
I Q
C
V e

C
V
2
I Q
C
V e

0
1
LC
LC
=

By using a current sensing resistor R
C
in parallel with
piezoelectric-element, the velocity control signal can
be obtained. In order to reduce the high frequency
noise and make sure that the velocity signal is clean
enough to drive the switches, a passive low pass filter
is applied here. The optimal time to switch is when the
voltage of the piezoelectric-element reaches peak
voltage and it is the same moment as the current of the
piezoelectric-element crossing the zero point.
Traditional technique is to use peak detector to drive
the switch but velocity control is used here to drive the
switch and thus the switching time is more accurate.
As Fig 8 shows, the blue line V
C
is the open circuit
waveform of the piezoelectric-element and red
line V
S
is the velocity control signal which is in
phase with I
P
. When using velocity signal to drive
the switch, it always drives the switch on the peak
voltage of the piezoelectric-element.


(a) (b)
Fig. 8: (a) The equivalent circuit diagram of the
velocity control circuit. (b) Waveform of the velocity
control circuit.

SIMULATION, EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
In Table 1, the dimensions of piezoelectric patches
and cantilever beam are tabulated listed. Fig 9 shows
the experimental setup and circuit schematic diagram
of the nonlinear magnetic coupling design of the
piezoelectric energy harvester combined with SSHI-P
technique. Fig 10 shows the pictures of the
experimental setup. The two patches are marked as P
1

and P
2
. P
1
is connected to the SSHI-P circuit and P
2
is
connected to the velocity control circuit. The
piezoelectric cantilever beam is excited by a shaker
(Brel & Kjr 4809); the vibration signal generated by
a data acquisition card (NI-DAQ USB-6259) and the
acceleration is 2 m/s
2
. To realize the SSHI-P circuit,
the two diodes and the two MOSFET (metal oxide
field-effect transistor) switches are used as shown in
Fig 9. When the velocity signal goes zero crossing
from negative to positive, the NMOS (N-Channel
MOSFET) switch (IRFU210) is switched on and when
the signal goes zero-crossing from positive to negative,
the PMOS (P-channel MOSFET) switch (IRF9640) is
switched on. The two diodes confine the current flow
and the inductor L will resonate with the static
capacitor of the piezoelectric-element. The voltage of
the piezoelectric -element and the output power are
increased. The two switches used here are high voltage
MOSFET because the voltage of piezoelectric-element
will reach around 170V. The diodes used are also high
voltage Schottky- diode to ensure the voltage does not
go into the breakdown region.
Fig 11 shows the experimental results without
SSHI-P technique. The driving signal is chirping with
frequency range from 5Hz to 30Hz in 250 seconds.
The driving frequency cannot start from 1Hz because
the limitation of the vibration shaker. The distance
between the two magnets is 3.5mm. The black curve is
the output voltage for the linear system without
magnetic nonlinear force and red curve is output
voltage with the magnetic nonlinear force added in.
From the results, the magnetic nonlinear coupling can
effectively extend the available band-width, unlike in
the linear system, where the energy is only available at
the resonant frequency. Comparing nonlinear to linear
results, the voltage close to the resonance frequency is
almost the same as nonlinear system, but more energy
can be harvested in nonlinear system at non-resonant
frequency when the displacement is large enough to
drive the beam from one stable position to the other
stable position. In the nonlinear magnetic coupling
system the voltage can be increased around two or
three times than the linear system. The amount of
increased voltage is depended on how large the
deflection in between the two bi-stable position caused
by the magnetic coupling. There is a critical frequency
in this nonlinear magnetic coupling system. When the
potential energy is not enough to drive the system from
one stable to another, the voltage in the nonlinear
system will be the same with the linear system.
Fig 12 shows the simulation results of the output
voltage of the magnetic nonlinear harvester and Table
2 shows the results of measurements and simulation
parameters. The simulation model is based on Fig 5.
The nonlinear system simulation model is built in
Matlab and PSIM software packages. The simulation
results are driven by chirping frequency. The chirping
frequency is ranging from 1Hz to 30Hz in 300 seconds
and its voltage swing rate is the same as the
experimental conditions. Comparing to the
experimental results, the simulation results show good
agreement with the experimental data.
Fig 13 shows the experimental result of the
magnetic nonlinear system and linear system
combined with parallel SSHI technique. The velocity
control signal is used to control the switching time and
through the comparator to drive two MOSFETs. The
power of comparator is supplied with an external
power supply though. From the results and comparing
with Fig 11, the SSHI-P can boost the output voltage
(from 110V to 170V) whatever in linear or nonlinear
system, also improve the power output around the
resonant frequency and the synchronized switch
technique will not influence the magnetic nonlinear
effect. When these two nonlinear techniques are
combined together, the advantage will also be
combined. The available band-width is broadened and
P
I
Current sensing resistor
Passive
Low pass
filter
Velocity Control
signal to comparator
V
S

P
V

P
V

eq
I

eq
I

S
V

S
V
C
R

output power at the broadened frequency is also
improved. Although the experimental results show
significant improvement of output power, theoretically
the voltage of magnetic nonlinear system combined
with SSHI-P should be larger than the experimental
results. There are two reasons to explain the loss.
Firstly, there are switching losses in the switches
(MOSFETs). Secondly, the voltage is too high so as
the high frequency switch noise is presented and
hardly to keep it clean enough. When the velocity
control signal is not clean enough, the switch will on
and off many times with the LC resonance. When LC
resonance cannot work perfectly, the effect of SSHI-P
will not be good enough.

Table 1: Dimension of the piezoelectric patches and
cantilever beam



Fig. 9: Experimental setup and circuit schematic
diagram of the nonlinear magnetic coupling of the
piezoelectric energy harvester combined with SSHI-P.


Fig. 10: Photos of the experimental setup.


Fig. 11: Experimental results of the nonlinear
magnetic coupling of piezoelectric energy harvester
without SSHI-P.


Fig. 12: Simulation results of nonlinear magnetic
coupling of piezoelectric energy harvester without
SSHI-P.

Table 2: Measurements and model parameters.



Fig. 13: Simulation results of nonlinear magnetic
coupling of piezoelectric energy harvester combined
with SSHI-P.


Length Width Thickness 170 mm 35mm 0.5 mm
First Bending Mode 10.4 Hz
P1 28mm 16.5 mm 0.5 mm
P2 6 mm 16.5 mm 0.5 mm
Piezoelectric patches
Steel Beam
Piezoelectric Patches
Exciting source : Vibration shaker
NMOS
IRFU210 PMOS
IRF9640
1
D
2
D
L
Fixed
End
Free End
P1
Steel Beam
R
c
Passive
Low pass
filter
VS
Comparator
LM311
V
Cout
Current sensing resistor
Velocity Control
signal tocomparator
P2
Velocity Control Circuit Supplying and Driving SSHI-P Circuit Output Part
Power
Supply
V
P
Velocity Control patch
SSHI-P Harvesting patch
Magnetic coupling part
10.4 Hz
15.57nF
2.45nF
0.00007716 N/V
49g
209.229Nm
-1
Damping ratio of the structure
0.15 Nm
-1
s
-1
Clamped capacitance of
the piezoelectric element
Open circuit resonance frequency
Force-voltage coupling factor
Mass
Equivalent stiffness of the structure
when piezoelectric is short-circuited
0 f
1
f
0
C
1
P

2 k
E
K
D
2
P
M
D V

CONCLUSION
Combining magnetic nonlinear coupling
technique with the synchronized switch technique on
piezoelectric energy harvester proposed in this study is
a new and interesting design. When these two
nonlinear techniques working together, the available
band-width is broadened and the power output within
the broadened frequency range is improved. These two
techniques can work at the same time and will not
influence each other, and the benefits of these two
nonlinear techniques are also combined together.
Comparing the nonlinear experimental results with
linear results, the effect of nonlinear magnetic coupling
technique is verified. The voltage gain is almost the
same at resonant frequency; however, at the non-
resonant frequency, the output voltage of the
piezoelectric-element can be improved around two or
three times. Synchronized switch harvesting on
inductor technique is used here to improve output
power at each frequency. The voltage gain can be
improved around 1.5 times than the system without
using SSHI-P technique. The distance between two
magnets decides the potential energy gap between two
stable positions. When the potential energy gap is large,
it means that there will be more defection and more
energy boosted, but it will be hard to drive to such
position though. When the frequency is higher than
the critical frequency, the nonlinear system will work
at the same as the linear system. The SSHI-P technique
can increase output power at each frequency, but when
the frequency is close to the resonant frequency, the
boosting effect is more effective. This is because that
at non-resonant frequency, the loss in circuit is larger
and is less effective. The nonlinear magnetic coupling
combined with the SSHI technique proposed in this
study is new techniques for piezoelectric energy
harvester. Through these two nonlinear techniques,
the piezoelectric harvester can work more efficiently at
non-resonant frequency and more output power at a
broadened frequency range can be obtained.

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